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About Jessica Hays & her Blog

Jessica is a winner of Top 25 Family Blogs by Moms - 2012

What's your favorite thing to do on family night?

We don't really have a formal family night - we try to enjoy our time together all of the time we are together. We sometimes watch movies (complete with popcorn and over-sized pillows to lay on), play games (Landon plays a "mean" Candy Land), or go on walks together if the weather is nice. I'm sure our lack of scheduled time is due to the age of our kiddos (1 and 3 years old). I think it's important to spend quality time together as a family. As the children get older and other activities, like, school, sports and extra curricular activities, fill up the afternoons and evenings I'm sure we will set some time that is specifically saved for spending time together.

What has surprised you most about motherhood?

Everything and nothing at the same time! I really tried to go into this whole parenting thing with no expectations of what it was going to be like. Sure I read out the wazoo about parenting and what to expect as a general norm, but keeping in mind that every child and family is different is important. I've experienced different types of motherhood - both the full time working mom and the stay at home (and a little in between) each has their own hurdles to overcome as well as positives to celebrate.

What's your favorite game to play as a family?

Landon, my oldest at 3 years old, is just starting to enter the world of formal games and though we have a few we play, he really doesn't have the attention span for it. Our family favorite made up game to play is "ball game". This pretty much involves chasing each other around the living room, around the couches and into hallways, throwing soft balls at each other. We get the most belly laughs out of both boys and is some of the best memories of family time so far.

Jessica's Answers

What's a great, freezable dish to bring to a new mom? Please share a link to your recipe.

If the new mom has a crock pot - I have just the thing! For my own meal preparation I do batch meals where I prepare multiple (the most ever was 34) meals at one time. I put them all into gallon zip lock bags and freeze. It takes a day to do it, but then dinner is "done" for a while. In the morning I put the frozen chunk of a meal in the crock pot and let it do it's thing. Dinner is done at the end of the day and there's barley any mess!
I've done two posts about the these mass meals (with shopping lists and recipes) and I've brought them to new moms and they've loved it!